Why the need for another blog entry, you ask? Well, because it seems that some people didn’t bother to read through the entire length of the last one. Or it has become abundantly clear that factual statistics aren’t enough for this simple request to be heard. So this time, I’m going to try to work with anecdotes, in the best way possible.

While playing WoW, there are a handful of us, yes those of you reading (whether you play WoW or not). We’ve got 9 out of 10 people for a 10man ICC run. We pug the last guy. Last guys yells out in Vent (a vent that 1) doesn’t belong to him and 2) he was invited to just for this event), “We’re so going to rape this place.”

Person 1’s backstory goes like this: Raped by an uncle. When she told family members about what was happening, no one believed her. She never sought therapy or help for what happened to her. She still struggled daily when in the presence of men.

Person 2’s backstory: Raped by a father. Father was arrested. Person 2 got therapy and lives a mostly normal life. Has a husband and children. The bad days are few and far between.

Person 3’s backstory: Family member was raped and remembers the trauma it caused. Person 3 remembers how much EVERYONE suffered at the knowledge that the family member was raped.

Person’s 4-9: Never knew anyone who was raped and have never been raped themselves.

No one knows the experiences of the others, but all of you have been playing WoW for years. You can all tell stories about things you’ve done together. You know when Player 5 got married. You know that players 8 and 9 met in game and have been together now for 4 years and are expecting their first child. You know personal and real details about each person, even if (aside from Players 8 and 9) none of you have met. You bitch about your personal life with these people and you are handsomely rewarded for your teamwork and efforts within a game you all love and enjoy. They are your friends. You depend on them in the virtual world, and in the case of Player 8 and 9, in real life as well. You find camaraderie amongst your guild members.

Now. Given this (albeit ridiculous) scenario, how should each person respond. Person 1 hears “We’re so going to rape this place (like your uncle did to you when you were a little girl).” Is she wrong for feeling this way? She doesn’t say anything because she doesn’t want to piss anyone off, or cause problems. People react exactly the way amber, Daey and countless other people react when it gets brought up anyway. Why say anything? It won’t change. It won’t stop her from hearing those additional words when someone uses the term “rape” within the game. Is it fair, that this person who is otherwise a friend and guildmate, that her experiences are trivialized and treated as pathetic and useless? Is it her own fault this happened to her? Did she do something to ask or this to happen? Is it her fault that she doesn’t have the family support to help point her in the right direction and she has thus since spent her entire life internalizing the experience in an effort to fit in with her peers. Some of her peers are you, keep in mind.

Person 2 hears “We’re so going to rape this place!” and thinks nothing of it. It isn’t until later that night when the trauma of what happened to her comes back. Her husband is left to stare at her in bewilderment not knowing what to do to fix this. It isn’t his to fix. She has done the best that she can and for the most part is a fully functional adult. The experience has helped her become a stronger person and thus has raised her own children to be strong individuals.

Person 3 sends a whisper to the Raid Leader. The Raid Leader addresses the issue. The men all pipe up with “It was funny” or “He was a good rogue, just let it go.” Never knowing that Player 1 and 2 are having a hard time with this. Player 3 says something more. And suffers the ridicule and chastisement of her guild members. Someone she believed were her friends.

Is Person 1 wrong for feeling the way she does? Are we, those outside of the situation, allowed to TELL her how she should be feeling? Would it be so difficult to respect your guild member, your friend, and stop using the term “rape” so nonchalantly? Is it Person 2 allowed to tell Person 1 that she’s being irrational and dumb when what she hears includes “like your uncle did to you when you were a little girl”? Does Person 2 have a right to compare the experiences or their lives because she’s had a similar experience but has had better opportunities to seek help and adjust?

At what point do we stop expecting everyone else around us to do the jobs we should do? Should anyone other than Person 3 said something? Yes. Absolutely. Should it have been returned with ridicule and chastisement? Absolutely not. You should respect the people you play with. You should respect the people you call friends, even virtual ones. Some of my closest friends are people I almost never get to see in real life. My best friend of all time lives thousands of miles away, but our friendship is no less a best friendship than one I could have with someone nearby. Except that we could SEE each other more often.

Each person is going to take a negative situation and adjust however they want and at the pace that they want. I don’t speak for all victims and/or survivors. I don’t speak for anyone but myself. I asked for people to speak up and say something. I asked for people to start saying something when it comes up. I did not say that using other words to describe the same thing wouldn’t work. Use “buttsex” for example. Similar connotation, much funnier in execution. Includes men and women regardless of situation, and does not imply the violent act of taking something from someone against their will.

We’re all entitled to our opinions. I’m not even asking that you guys change your views of what rape or sex is for that matter. I ask that you respect the PEOPLE you play the game with and not use it in the way it’s been used up until now. This was one scenario. This was one person’s story based on the stories of others. This is one possibility of what could happen or the things that could exist. This is just one, out of billions, of possible situations you might find yourself in.

What role do you play in this? Are you willing to lessen the experiences of others because of one tiny detail, a detail that may not be so tiny to someone else? Will you only be sympathetic if you knew Person 1 and/or Person 2’s story? Would they need to disclose it in order for you to behave differently? Is it fair to think that everyone should just “buck up and grow up” because it’s what you’ve been able to do when faced with adverse life situations?

Why can’t we chose to be respectful of the people who play our games with? Why can’t we remember that these people are our friend’s too? That we don’t need to know the details to understand the importance of it.

That way Person 1 may one day feel like asking for help. From her guildies or from a therapist. And Person 2 may be okay with talking about it to someone other than her husband again. And everyone involved can know they did what they could to make the game playing experience the best for everyone involved.

I play a game called World of Warcraft in which people of all shapes and sizes, colors and ethnicities, and gender also play. In the game, there is an awful lot of killing of virtual monsters and bad guys. I love killing stuff in the game. I kill all sorts of stuff from other people’s characters, to animals, and I’ve been known go to a little crazy with the turkey killing. But at no point have I ever raped someone… in game or otherwise.

So today I want to discuss something that has floated around the internet for quite some time now. The use of the word rape within the gaming community is nothing new. The terminology of the gaming community varies and shifts and wanes. It’s this one term, “rape” that bothers me. It bothers me a lot. Actually, it downright enrages me! What I’m talking about is using the term “rape” to describe killing, attacking, besting, pwning, etc another character, player, NPC or, well, anything in the game for that matter.

Last night I was on my Druid, doing what she does, healing the crap outta some people in Ulduar, while we were there specifically to get Glory to the Ulduar Raider (10) achievements. In the middle of all of this, as we’re attempting to get Crazy Cat Lady, someone jokes about raping another raid member in Vent. There were a handful of chuckles, but it wasn’t until someone said, “There’s no such thing as rape” that I started to be offended. Deeply. I had raided the previous week with many of the same people and looked forward to working on getting my dragon mount. Many of them were in the same guild. There were a handful of raid members who were not part of their guild or my own.

First, a rule has long since been established within my current guild on Eldre’Thalas that you are not allowed to use the term “rape” in reference to anything in the game. Why? Because it trivializes the experience for any and all who are victims and/or survivors. It lessens their trauma to something funny in a virtual game.

Second, I don’t know these people personally. I know a lot of my guild members personally. I could tell you personal details of their lives. I didn’t want to cause a big stink immediately upon it happening, but I did say something, to the raid leader. As the conversation continued in whisper with him, his wife also whispered me about my discomfort about how the term was being tossed about.

The icing on the cake was when someone said “It’s not rape until the check bounces.” Alright guy. Now, I’m pissed. I was tolerable, and even consolable before. A mere mention to maybe back off would have been okay. But that… that takes the fuckin’ cake sir. And I will not sit down and take that from anyone.

At the end of the raid, when there was talk about continuing later in the week to get more achievements, the raid leader I whispered brought up the issue in Vent. Calmly, he said “Also, there’s something else I want to bring up. There are ladies in the group and some of them were offended by the use of the word rape.” Some of the younger men piped up about how it was “funny” and it was only a “joke”. Keep in mind, I hadn’t spoken at all on these strangers vent. Never intended to. I keep my gender a secret in the game because WoW is filled with so many misogynists that I’d rather be judged on my ability to keep your ass alive than on the female tone of my voice. Or my apparent lack of a penis between my legs.

I pressed the button. I spoke the first and only time to these strangers. I was hot and pissed, and fists were clenched. I explained that rape is not funny. Will never be funny. That it’s offensive and horrible to hear the term be thrown about as though it were some hilarious aside. I was angry. Shaking with clenched fists angry. I felt my face get hot, my voice get shaky, and tears flowed down my face. My heart raced as I wished death upon the asshole who thought it was funny to joke about bouncing checks constituting rape.

One guy, in response to me said, “I’ve never been raped, so since I’ve never experienced it, it’s just funny to me.”

*blinks* Rly?

By this point I was seeing red. I was flaming pissed off and I yelled into the microphone that it is not funny and will never be funny. Someone said “Alright, let’s bring this down a little bit or I’m going to start kicking people.” At which point I left the vent. I dropped the raid. And I whispered the raid leader that I’d like to not ever be invited to anything they were doing again. And to please forget I existed. He apologized, again. Said I was good heals and I didn’t hear back from him again. The RLs wife was whispering me about how she understood where I was coming from and reassured me that the one’s making the comments were not guild members. Except, one of them was.

He took offense to my stating that he was less likely to be raped because of his penis, and that he doesn’t believe that women’s bodies react involuntarily. When in fact, the only difference between a man’s body reacting to unwanted sexual stimulation and a woman’s body reacting to unwanted sexual stimulation is the fact that a man’s bodily response is much easier to detect.

Many sexual abuse survivors have trouble dealing with the fact that their body was sexually stimulated and felt aroused during the abuse. They may feel guilty and ashamed that they responded to the stimulation, and confused about why they did.
– “Sexual Feelings During Sexual Abuse” by Kali Munro, M.Ed., Psychotherapist, 2004

So please, don’t patronize me with your false sense of education. Fury Warrior with no brain, you’re wrong. There is such a thing as rape, and the body will respond whether you like it or not. This is exactly how men are raped… just much less often than women.

I found the blog post an annoying rationalization for disliking humor in general, which the blogger admits she does. I find the “but rape is real!” argument against jokes of this nature to be a disingenuous one. Slavery is also real, as is murder and general violence.

I will not discount that slavery and murder and general violence aren’t real. They very much are. The biggest difference between rape and those other horrible acts are that none of them specifically target one gender moreso than another. Physiologically, women are at a disadvantage. We’re made softer, smaller, less agile and less strong. Don’t give me the crap about women body builders, because that is not the general rule with women. There are always exceptions to every rule. For the most part most men can overpower, by sheer strength, most women.

Let’s take a look at murder first. According to FBI.gov, there were 13,636 murder victims in 2009. The U.S population is roughly 307,006,550 as of July 2009, according to Google Public Data. That makes it 4.44% of the total population is a victim of murder. Yes, most murder victims are male, but men are more likely to commit violent acts or be involved in violent acts (and an entirely separate issue altogether). That means, generously, 1 in 20 people you see on the street could be a murder victim.

Then we have rape. 1 in 6 women are victims of an attempted or completed rape. That’s 16.67% of women. Compared to 1 in 33 for men (3.03%). Comparing slavery from hundreds of years ago, and murder (where the U.S. is #24 worldwide) to rape (where the U.S. is #1 worldwide) is deplorable. The total number of murders is a fraction of the total number of rapes against women.

So when I asked you, random strangers on some other guild’s vent, to please refrain from using the term rape, a simple “Okay” would have been sufficient. I received a whisper from someone else who was there during all of it as well, and he said he was sorry. He apologized and said he’d stop using the term. Informed me his sister had almost been raped. I replied with “I’m really sorry to hear that.” And I genuinely was.

Would it have been any less funny if I told you I was raped? If I were a victim or a survivor? Would it have been less funny if you found out your mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, best friend’s mom, cousin, whatever had been raped? Or is it still HILARIOUS because you yourself have never been raped? Sometimes, it’s not about you. Sometimes it’s about the fact that you are trivializing the experience. Making jokes doesn’t make it less serious. Making jokes doesn’t make it not happen. The truth remains that every 2 minutes, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.

Some of the problem is that as women and men, we’ve allowed this to be socially acceptable within our favorite games. The anonymity of the internet has allowed more and more people to be bigger and bigger assholes. Women who play video games have been treated as though we are incapable of playing our characters without a man to run along side of us. Many women don’t broadcast their gender within the game where men play female characters. They let people assume whatever they will, rather than deal with the chastisement of “OMG, UR NOT RLY A GURL!!” (if you think people haven’t said or typed this exact thing to me, you’re fooling yourself).

Women, the only thing I can ask of you is to stop tolerating this. Don’t let it go. What I said to the player who told me his sister was almost raped was “If you stop saying it, then I’m happy. I made a difference with one person.” That’s one less person who’s going to use “rape”. Say something. It has to stop.

Men, I have to ask that you not sit on your laurels and let it happen. If you look at your wives, daughters, sisters, and mothers, and find that rape is funny if it involves one of them, then by all means, let your brothers’ in arms go about their raping ways. If the very thought of someone YOU love being raped is not even the least bit funny, stop it from happening. Say something. Women aren’t taken as seriously in WoW as men are, so it’s up to you to help make a difference.

This isn’t about freedom of speech. This is about changing the meaning of a word that in and of itself describes a very violent act. You’re free to talk about killing all the virtual monsters you want to. But you’re not raping them. Rape doesn’t happen in WoW. It happens in real life. It’s not funny. It never will be.

So DruidMain posted about a Bucket List. Y’know, those things you want to get accomplished before Cataclysm comes out. So it got me to thinking, what sort of things have I been working on the last little while for before Cataclysm changes all of Azeroth? The list may seem somewhat ridiculous, for the most part. I figure why not shoot for the moon, and settle on the stars.

Mailynn is only two world events away from getting [What A Long, Strange Trip It’s Been], so I’m planning on finishing that off with her. She will be the only one, I believe, who has the damn purple drake. Srsly.

I desperately need to get Hestiah[World Explorer] including all of the Flight Points around everywhere too. I have half a mind to wait until I can fly around most of the old world, but who knows. Maybe I’ll get bored enough to do it.

Hestiah still needs to get [Reins of the Raven Lord]. It’s kind of pathetic that she’s a druid and she doesn’t have this yet.

Everything Else

I’d like to level my Resto Shaman at some point beyond whatever her level is right now (I’m pretty sure it’s only 17).

Like DruidMain, a set of Plate Heirloom items would be really nice. I hadn’t even thought about it up until now, but I’m pretty sure it would sure make leveling easier for my Worgen Warrior come Cataclysm if I have these ready.

So back when I first started playing Pokemon Diamond (at the poking and prodding of a certain person *winks at Michiko*), I went through this crazed phase. Surprised?!? If you know me well enough, you know I do this with damn near everything, and eventually the phase (or as I call them obsessions) pass. This one, however, didn’t pass until I had at least ONE copy of each type of pokemon that was available. This included having to find a GBC (Gameboy Color for those of you non-gamers out there).

I purchased a used copy of Pokemon Crystal (Because it was prettier??? *shrug*) through ebay. It was pretty beat up on the label, but it played, so I didn’t complain. I also picked myself up a nice purple-y colored GBC which seemed to work pretty well too. It came with this fancy case, some connection chords and some other junk I didn’t pay attention to because I realized I’d actually have to *gasp*choke*sputter* purchase batteries!!

I hadn’t had a hankering to actually bother to play until the other day. I was sitting at home after the infamous Jury Duty (man, that is the most BORING event ever!) and I wanted to play something. I didn’t want to replay Pokemon Pearl (which is the same as Diamond with only slight differences in the uber you get at the end and some of the pokes you get during game play). I already beat Diamond and didn’t want to keep going. I was kind of blah about it. I had Emerald, and even Leaf Green, but they’re close enough in generation to Diamond/Pearl that they didn’t give me anything… different.

So I busted out the Crystal.

Only, I saved the game, nearly immediately, and found much to my dismay, that while the game played, it’s internal battery had bit the big one and wasn’t saving games. Now onto the fun of figuring out how to effing fix that shiz! Cause now I’m determined. Even if I never finish it, I’m determined to make the bastard work!

I found this link on my multi-hour long search on how to replace said battery. I then ran out immediately to Radio Shack. Only the guy seemed like he was a bit out of his element and referred me to somewhere else that might be able to solder the new battery back in. And this place was CLOSED! Epic phail!!

I went home, a little pissed at my inability to be able to play Crystal, and proceeded to play Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time. Now, I didn’t want to have to PAY anyone to fix this cause it would normally only take a few minutes, so I brought the damn thing into work and asked the maintenance boys if it were doable. They did it. Only I forgot my SP to test the thing out.

Tonight when I get home, I might lose myself in some good ol’ fashioned Pokemon. This damn thing better save, or I’m throwing it at the wall.

😉

EDIT: The guys at work totally came through for me! TOTALLY! Pokemon Crystal works, and saves… and now I have my obsessive game for the next few weeks! WOOTAGE!!

EDIT 2: And my Gameboy Color actually DOES work, now that Crystal has a working and functional battery. YAY for everything being perfect and working right!

Usually when I’m driving, I start thinking to myself how much life would be easier if it were more like World of Warcraft. I mean, yesterday, after work, I made a special trip an hour north of my home. Why? Because I needed to try to buy Poly Pellets, or for those of you non-craft people, they’re the beanie baby filler beans. Why? Because I’m making a couple of crochet amigurumi dolls for the Colusa County Fair. That and since I’m quickly gaining poor status again, I decided to make the boy his birthday present rather than buying him something.

While driving on some backwoods highways, I had directions. But they didn’t necessarily tell me how far I needed to drive before finding my exits/turns. All I could think was how nice it would be to be able to /shout Is the 162 up ahead? and get a /tell response back of “Yeah, just another 5 miles or so.”

And then I started to think about the other aspects of how WoW life is just SO much better than real life. I mean, how great would it be to inspect people when they’re afk from life, and you can see if they have neurological disorders, psychosis issues, their ethnicity (mostly to avoid foot-in-mouth moments). I mean, we wander through real life, having to “figure it out” and man, MMO’s are just designed to be SO much easier. I can /who a person and find out their face AND class. I don’t have to associate with anyone of the Horde side, which eliminates about half of the people I run into. It’s not even a matter of I don’t have to associate with them, but the language barrier means that we’re just ignored, and I ignore them. No hard feelings. No issues or concerns. I just don’t bother.

And confrontations can be taken out during PVP and Arena type situations. Just remove all frustrations by whipping someone’s ass, and it’s all okay after awhile.

And when I’m not in the mood, I can just /quit and be done with life for a little while.

Yeah. As time goes on… I start to think just how much better it would be if real life were more reflective of life in WoW. I really think I’d adjust a whole lot better. When I’m bored with my current life, I could just start over again from scratch.

Not too long ago, in a very similar place to where my butt resides as I type this, I was hooked. HOOKED I SAY, to a game called Everyquest. I only worked part time. Actually, back when the game first came out, I had friends who wanted me to play. It was appropriately named Evercrack, because it was like crack… for the anti-social, or the socially inept. Or just the shy.

My ex got me started. And once I was hooked, there was no turning back. I worked hard, played for 12-14 hours a day. I worked only enough to get by, and when I got home it was all the game. It was the least expensive pastime I’d ever had, but at the same time, it became my only pastime too. I did nothing more.

When I walked away from the game of Everquest, I decided that I would never let a game become quite the same obsession.

Until a friend talked about nothing but WoW. I mean, I had played, for like 4 days and hated it. I don’t hate it so much anymore. I play. I play it occasionally, but summer is coming, and I think it might be something I do more of. The WoW friend helps me with things. She’s guild leader, and I wish I could say that I get special preferential treatment because I knew her prior to playing WoW, but that’s not the case. She helps me out a lot, and she actually did a run for me yesterday. My Warlock is still pimping some green and blue gear, but now she’s got a ridiculous amount of purples.

And now… for some farming, and maybe… just maybe… to start doing some dailies.

On a side note, I started playing Pokemon Pearl. Too bad Michiko made me crazy obsessed and I decided to start breeding my team before I’ve killed anything. Yeah, I know. It’s disgusting. You should see the charts!